The Truth about Heaven
by Bribear393
Summary: Mostly a song fic; A moment of reunion between Draco and Hermione after she's been gone for months. Based off of the song "The Truth about Heaven" by Armor for Sleep. One-shot Enjoy -


A/N : Iiiiii.... do not own any piece of the Harry Potter Franchise. This is also my first story I've posted, so let me know what you think ^-^

The Truth about Heaven.

Hermione sat down on the edge of Draco's bed, patiently waiting for him to notice her. He was writing some paper or another at his desk, and she sat behind him, taking in her surroundings.

His room was surprisingly blue- his comforters and curtains were both a mixture of blue and silver. She smiled, knowing full well that those colors were what suited him the best. She was sure that if the sun shone just right through those transparent blue curtains that his whole room would be illuminated in the color. It amused her to no end knowing that he would probably always be there at that time, just to see it.

Speaking of being there- he was still too absorbed in his paper to even suffer a glance in her direction- it's not like she was being particularly quiet or anything; quite the opposite as she bounced impatiently on his bed. Sighing anxiously (and quite noisily), she got up and glanced over his large book case, trying to find some form of _something_ to do. She was sick of staring at him and being consistently ignored; it was beyond annoying.

Looking at his book case she had found exactly what she had expected; lots of their old school books, defense against the dark arts books, horrors- wait, _defense_ against the dark arts?? Huh, go figure, Draco-baby wasn't yanking her chain after all. She looked to him with a smile; who would've thought he'd really give up everything for her? Certainly not herself, she thought he was just trying to get close to information from the other side. She still hung out with him though; he was friendly and comforting company when he wasn't being a complete douche.

_ Which he had been becoming less and less of lately…_

As she continued to look up his bookcase, she found more boring books, Draco being the forever A+ student. As soon as her eyes reached the shelf that was level with her line of view she gasped and put her hand to her chest. There, proudly displayed as the focal point of the bookcase was a set of her own books; books that she had read in front of him or discussed with him at one point or another. Her eyes started to tear up when she saw that the one that stuck out the most was Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. She hadn't gotten to read the novel of course, it had just come out, but it stood proudly next to the previous two books in the series, clearly new, and obviously read. She waved her fingers slowly along the spine of the book; not being able to touch it, but wanting to read it so desperately that it consumed her thoughts for a minute or so.

When she wasn't paying attention, of course, was when Draco decided to note her presence. He was happily, (_happily_ pssh), writing an essay, not saying a word, when he had heard a gasp come from the other side of his room. He tensed up instantly, and in a flash drew his wand and pointed it towards the corner where his bookcase stood. Before a defensive spell could even cross his mind, his body froze up and his arm fell back towards his body.

_ Hermione? Oh my God…_

He sat, watching her review the mini collection of her books he had taken before Potter or Wesley could note their disappearance. He knew that there were other things of hers that he had taken that she probably hadn't noticed yet otherwise she'd be doing more than gasping.

…He was talking about her like she was alive again. How easy it was, he had found, to return to what they had thought of as _their_ home, their common room, expecting her to be bouncing down to greet him, or reading a book on their couch, fire blazing like always.

_ She always got so __**cold**__ in winter, I never understood why…_

He saw her graze her fingers over Eclipse and smiled, knowing that she had never gotten a chance to read it, having bought it himself. He just felt like it belonged with her other two books; she would have had it that way.

Silently, he rose from his chair and walked towards her, coming up right behind her, watching what she would do next. After a moment, he realized that she was lost in thought and decided to take a chance. He assumed that he couldn't touch her, but he felt the need to hold her take him over, and he followed his instincts. Slowly and deliberately, he bent over to capture her in his arms. He choked with relief when his arms had caught not air, but the soft and warm flesh of Hermione, his Hermione. She startled, jumping when he had grasped her from behind. With a little squeal she turned herself around in his arms and stared at him with a scared expression written plainly on her face. He openly cried out in a mixture of relief and elation, grabbing her hair and pushing her head into his chest, holding her with such a passion that it near scared them both.

He hadn't realized how much he had missed her until he had her back. How much he missed everything came rushing overpowered him. The way her voice would always make him upset one minute, then put him to sleep the next, the way her eyes would glitter with excitement when she had just bested him at a particularly hard school problem, the way her hair would bounce when she would run around, the way she smelled just too damn _good_ when she was fresh out of the shower, the way her skin felt underneath his fingertips…

Hermione was completely taken by surprise when he had come up behind her, and not only that, but he was holding her, _touching_ her. As soon as he had pulled her in closer, the contact had impacted her completely; he was _touching her,_ she hadn't been able to affect anything for the last three months, and here he was, stroking hair and kissing her face, just like he used to. When she got the courage, she reached around his body and held him closer to her, grateful for this mini loophole of contact they had found. It felt so good, and he was so _warm. _She hadn't realized it, but in the rush of the moment her eyes started to well up and spill over with tears. She couldn't believe she was touching Draco again, that he could see her… why didn't she come here sooner? She would suppose it had to do with the fact that she was afraid that even though she had thought they had an amazing friendship/ two months or so of dating that he would have forgotten her, banished her memory from his thoughts completely to move on to someone that's more his type- not a Gryffindor.

She realized, somewhere between finding a lack of dark-arts books in his private quarters and him whispering words of gratefulness and love into her hair, that she couldn't be more wrong. This boy really would have given up his whole planned future for her; he had thrown his beliefs in the wind and had given his everything to her. It's too bad they couldn't have realized it sooner.

He finally pulled back and held her face in his hands, looking deeply at her. "Why are you crying?"

"You…*sniff*, you really did…*hiccup* love me."

He stared at her disbelievingly, wondering what brought on this sudden realization that he had been trying to engrave into her brain for at least the three months of school before she had gone, and two of the months in the summer.

"Of course I did! Why else would I say so? Silly girl."

She let out a laugh that came out as more of a cry and clung to him again. He held her and tried to calm her down; whispering in her hair, not knowing what to say, but also knowing that it didn't entirely matter.

Midnight found them lying on his bed, both on their sides, holding each other while catching up on everything that had happened. She told him about what she had been doing, which was mostly wandering. After finding that spot, with the small letter Draco had left, she simply didn't know what to do next. She wandered home, and then to all of the places in the world she had always wanted to see like New York and the Caribbean. After that, she could guess why she was still a ghost- she needed to go back to Hogwarts, but she delayed another month out of pure fear of not being seen even in a place so magical. For the past week, though, she had been following Draco and Harry closely. This shocked Draco, much more than it should have, and when she asked about it he merely said, 'Two days ago I would have sworn I saw you sitting across from me in the library. I practically had a mental breakdown because of it!'

He told her about what he had done after she had left. Instantly after he had been informed by McGonagall he went into an autopilot mode and cleaned up the common room and her bedroom of all traces of their relationship together. He blushed when he told her he took a box worth of things from her room and kept them in his personal bedroom, where Harry and Ron weren't allowed to peep through.

"I noticed the books," she said with a small smile, rubbing her nose across his affectionately, "thank you for getting the third one, by the way. How is it?"

He told her about his life at home- he hadn't gone home for break, and didn't intend to. McGonagall had agreed to keep him on campus as an apprentice for as long as he needed- but it was also a clever way of the Order keeping him safe. She had smiled and cried at the same time when he mentioned that. When he asked her about it, she confessed that she was worried that they wouldn't take him in when she was gone.

Two in the morning found the two under the covers, tired and cold, but not willing to give into sleep just in case the other person wouldn't be there in the morning. Hermione looked Draco in the eyes, her golden ones clashing horribly but glamorously with his silver ones in the faint wand light.

"I don't want to go. But I feel like I won't be allowed to stay much longer." Draco pulled her into his chest, fighting the heat of rising tears. She relaxed into his hold, knowing for sure now that she would not be able to stay- this is what she had been missing; Draco.

"I love you."

She pulled away to look him in the eyes again. She felt so terrible, his face screamed angst, and his eyes were bloodshot from the effort to not cry on the last time they would see each other. Quickly, before either of them could re-think it, she leaned up and kissed him. Of course, they had kissed before when they had been dating before, but that was marginally different. They didn't believe they would see each other again, let alone spend as much time as they had together as they were now. It was a miracle to both of them. Also, they had never had the time to confess love to each other; that always made it different.

He moved his hands to her face, holding her close, moving his thumbs back and forth across her cheek bones. Both of them had put everything they could into that kiss, the kiss they knew would be one of their last. When they pulled apart, Draco moved her head closer and onto his shoulder, resting his cheek atop hers.

"I love you too, you know." She buried her head deeper into the crook of his neck, trying to hide her marginal embarrassment, but knowing that even though he couldn't see her blush, he could very well feel the heat rising in her cheeks. He smirked against her face, holding her closer if that was even possible.

"Well, now I really don't want you to leave." She choked out a sound that was something of a cross between a laugh and a cry. She moved back onto his arm so they could talk face to face. Their noses were touching, and she could feel his raspberry-flavored breath on her cheeks.

"I agree." She watched him as he smiled and closed his eyes. He seemed so peaceful, so content. He hadn't seemed this happy in the past week, and the idea that she could do that brought a small smile to her face. "Hey, Draco," He opened his mercurial eyes and focused his dilated pupils onto her. "Do you think I can sleep with you tonight?" He surprised her when he laughed aloud and nuzzled her face.

"It's because of the storm, isn't it?" She frowned, confused, then propped herself up so she could see out the window behind her. Sure enough, there was a loud, wet storm taking place outside of the castle. Loud winds, heavy rain, lightning and thunder; she couldn't imagine why she hadn't noticed it before- storms terrified her. A slight panicked look crossed her face when she laid back down, facing Draco.

"Well, now it is." He laughed aloud again, and she found herself smiling. She couldn't believe how much she had missed something as simple as his laugh. It was simply heartwarming to her.

"Of course you can, I've never turned you down before." With that he turned off his wand light, pulled the thick covers high up to their shoulders, and then wrapped his arms around her, petting her hair to relax her to sleep. She sighed and snuggled in closer. She couldn't believe how warm he was…

A whole day of missing meals had passed before the teachers actively went looking for Draco Malfoy. Of course, the first place they looked for him was in his room, and that was where they had found him. He was in his bed, underneath his covers, with his arms wrapped closely towards himself. McGonagall had commented that it almost looked as though he was holding onto something that wasn't there. On the pillow next to him was a small piece of parchment that simply read, 'I love you, too,' in shiny red ink. They had buried him next to Hermione Granger on the other side of the Black Lake, knowing it was most certainly where he wanted to be. Their white marble headstones matched in font and design. Both read their names, and their dates of birth and death. The only differences between the two were the quotes below their vital information. Hermione's read; "I'd trade in forever to just hear you say the sound of my name," a quote that she had personally requested. Little did they know, Draco's quote was from the same song, reading, "I couldn't wake up not right next to you."


End file.
